As the west end creaks on, stuffing ever more musicals into the increasingly inadequate rectangle of the proscenium arch, theatre companies are venturing beyond the foyer to find new places to perform. “Site-specific theatre” has flourished in recent years. The National Theatre has set up home in a warehouse in Wapping; the Barbican Centre has allowed performers to make strange journeys on foot and bicycle through its complex; at this year’s Edinburgh fringe, the Traverse Theatre staged an award-winning piece in an art gallery; and the National Theatre of Scotland has put on shows in drill halls, ballrooms and factories.
This September, Punchdrunk, a company specialising in site-specific work, will perform a new piece entitled The Masque of the Red Death, inspired by the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The play will take place at the Battersea Arts Centre in south London, but rather than being confined to the main stage it will transform the entire building—an old town hall—into a gothic fantasy world. Set up in 2000, Punchdrunk have become one of the best-known exponents of site-specific theatre, thanks to the massive success of their recent show Faust. Part performance and part installation, Faust took place in an abandoned warehouse in Wapping; on arriving, the audience were handed masks and told to explore the building as the show unfolded around them. The play sold an astonishing 29,000 tickets and had its initial five-week run extended by four months.
Faust was produced in collaboration with the National Theatre, and followed on from the National’s work with another site-specific company, Shunt. No doubt the National’s association has contributed to the success of this kind of theatre. Meanwhile, across the Thames, the Barbican is getting in on the act. It recently commissioned the company Lone Twin to create Spiral. Over a week, two performers tried to navigate the labyrinthine Barbican complex—not just the arts centre—in as perfect a spiral as possible, ending up in the dead centre. Anyone who happened to be in the vicinity could find themselves caught up in the act. The performers’ explorations took them through churches, offices and even a drama lesson at a girls’ school.
If you are a subscriber, please log in »
This article is available to subscribers only
Subscribing to Prospect is the most reliable and convenient way to receive the magazine every month, and offers the best value.Subscription Types:
Online
An online subscription offers you complete and unlimited access to the entire website, including our searchable archive of every back issue of Prospect, and a PDF edition of each new issue: all this for just £20 per year. Purchase an online subscription »Renewal
Renew an existing subscription »Institutional access
If you are a library, business organisation or any other large institution that needs a multi-user licence, you can obtain institutional access.
Share
Subscribe to post comments
Print
